The 17th Kangaroo tour was televised back to Australia on the Ten Network with commentary provided by Graeme Hughes, David Morrow and sideline reporter Tony Durkin.

Various off-duty players including Mal Meninga, Benny Elias, Mark Geyer, Gary Belcher, Andrew Ettingshausen would also join the Ch.10 team in England as guest commentators or sideline reporters (with unrestricted access to coach Bob Fulton's tactics), while Allan Langer co-called the 2nd French test, the last game on the tour, with Boland on the ABC.

Greg Alexander, Gary Belcher, Martin Bella, Ben Elias, Des Hasler, Bob Lindner, Steve Roach, Dale Shearer and Paul Sironen were all 1986 tourists.

Kangaroos skipper Mal Meninga, a crowd favourite at St Helens after playing with the club in 1984–85 and helping them to win the Premiership and Lancashire Cup, returned to Knowsley Road and scored two tries, including the opening try of the tour.

However, due to a broken hand suffered by Laurie Daley in the game against Leeds, Fulton elected to play Canberra Raiders halfback Ricky Stuart at Five-eighth in his test debut.

Eastwood's next kick about 15 minutes later also hit the posts but this time bounced back into play, though luckily for Australia Lindner was in place to take the ball and prevent the Lions from scoring a try.

The Kangaroos were having difficulty with the French referee's interpretations (the penalty count would eventually favour the home side 17–7), but although the Lions enjoyed the bulk of possession, the Aussie's managed to weather the storm and at half time the score was locked at 2–all.

Despite a brilliant individual try in the second half to Mark McGaw after Steve Hampson and Carl Gibson had collided while attempting to tackle him, and a try to Mal Meninga, the Aussies were in trouble all day.

The Lions, led by Hanley and Schofield were playing better than expected and after second half tries to Martin Offiah following a dropped bomb by Belcher in front of the posts (the Australian fullback had been hit in a perfectly timed tackle by Hanley who chased his own kick and caused Belcher to spill the ball straight into the arms of the waiting Offiah), a double to Eastwood who scored the winning try and a field goal by Schofield saw the Lions take a famous 19–12 win.

Midway through the second half, Castleford's Australian coach Darryl van der Velde defused a potentially volatile situation by replacing Lee Crooks who had begun to be involved in a number of flare-ups with Kangaroos front rower Steve Roach.

With both Mal Meninga and Ben Elias not playing and expected to be named in the second test team, Bob Fulton handed the captaincy for the game to Allan Langer.

From there tries to Mark Sargent, Alexander, Kevin Walters and a double to Chris Johns saw the Kangaroos shoot away with Australian centre Greg Austin scoring the only try for the home side.

Cliff Lyons, who had won a premiership with Manly under Fulton in 1987, was called up to make his test debut with Ricky Stuart moving to his preferred halfback spot in place of Allan Langer.

Others coming into the side were Benny Elias (hooker) for his first test since the 1988 World Cup final, Glenn Lazarus in the front row at the expense of Martin Bella and playing in headgear to protect the stitches.

Brad Mackay's good performances saw him come in at lock with Bob Lindner moving to the second row at the expense of John Cartwright who dropped to the bench.

Mal Reilly stuck with much of the same side that had won the first test, though injury ruled out Bradford Northern's Karl Fairbank with Leeds forward Roy Powell moved to the bench.

Despite playing virtually no football since twisting his ankle while training for the Kangaroos tour opener 3 weeks earlier, St Helens goal kicking outside back Paul Loughlin was selected on the bench.

The Lions hit back early in the second half with a try to Dixon who broke through Shearer's tackle and was able to score after Mal Meninga and Gary Belcher had fallen off him when they collided with each other.

With just ten minutes left, Great Britain were poised to reclaim The Ashes after twenty years with an intercept try by replacement centre Loughlin late in the match.

Ricky Stuart had aimed a pass to Meninga, but Loughlin (called a Giraffe by Bob Fulton) intercepted it on the half way and raced 50 metres to score, though he was kept out wide due to a converging Laurie Daley.

After hooking his earlier conversion attempt from almost the same position, Eastwood then asked noted right foot goal kicker Loughlin if he wanted to take the kick, but the out of breath St. Helens centre declined.

After struggling to make ground following the scrum win, on the 4th tackle Ricky Stuart dummied past an exhausted Lee Jackson and ran 75 metres downfield leaving Lions players (including Ellery Hanley) in his wake before passing to Mal Meninga in support (who legally shouldered Carl Gibson out of the way) to complete a length-of-the-field try that sealed the match for Australia and force the series into a decider.

Giant forward Mark Carroll returned to the side after suffering a knee injury during a team training session a few days before the first Ashes Test some 3 weeks earlier.

Midway through the second half Paul Sironen was taken from the field with an eye injury and Kangaroos team doctor Nathan Gibbs diagnosed a scratched retina.

"Brandy" played the game at Naughton Park, the scene of Australia's last non-test loss in England back in 1978, on the wing with Shearer moved to the centres in place of Laurie Daley who was being kept under wraps until the third test due to his broken right hand.

Kangaroos captain Mal Meninga became just the third Australian to score a try in each test of an Ashes series following on from legendary try-scoring winger Ken Irvine in 1962 and 1963, and the most unlikely of the trio, front-row forward Sam Backo in 1988.

Mal Reilly did similar to his former Manly-Warringah teammate and only made changes to his bench with Jonathan Davies replacing Paul Loughlin and Mike Gregory returning to the side in place of Shaun Edwards.

Replacement halfback Greg Alexander, who came on after only 15 minutes of the first half for Ricky Stuart who left the field feeling ill, continued his good form in France and crossed for a hat-trick of tries.

Laurie Daley was ruled out with a hamstring injury which saw Dale Shearer move to the centres with Greg Alexander selected to play in the unfamiliar position of wing.

During the first half, French fullback David Fraisse showed surprising pace to run down Kangaroos speedsters Dale Shearer and Andrew Ettingshausen, pulling off try saving tackles on both.